Background
Charles Morgridge Loring was born on November 13, 1832 in Portland, Maine, United States, the son of Horace and Sarah (Willey) Loring and a descendant of Thomas Loring who emigrated to Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1634.
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Charles Morgridge Loring was born on November 13, 1832 in Portland, Maine, United States, the son of Horace and Sarah (Willey) Loring and a descendant of Thomas Loring who emigrated to Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1634.
Charles M. Loring spent four years in a Chicago wholesale house and later he went to the little town of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1860, hoping the climate would be more suitable to his never too robust health. As merchant, miller, and dealer in real estate, he acquired what then passed for a considerable fortune. Merely as a successful business man he was not to be distinguished from others who utilized the opportunities of a new country. From the first, however, he exhibited a lively and intelligent interest in the civic problems of a community unhampered by fixed traditions. Politics as such did not attract him, although he held a minor office or two in his earlier years; his attention was drawn to the possibilities of enhancing the beauty and increasing the healthfulness of his city. His major avocation--seeing that Minneapolis was provided with parks, playgrounds, and the like, laid out and equipped with consideration for future growth.
In 1864 Loring made his first definite move toward this goal when he persuaded a citizen to donate a small tract of land for a park. For years he struggled to secure the cooperation of a citizenry reluctant to spend money for anything that seemed to have no immediate practical utility. He saw them neglect many opportunities to acquire land cheaply for park purposes. Not until 1880 was any real step taken in the direction he desired to go; then a small sum appropriated by the city council permitted the improvement of a few acres donated several years before, and he not only supervised the laying out of paths and the planting of trees, but did much of the work with his own hands. In 1883 the state legislature, against the protest of the city council, created a board of park commissioners for Minneapolis and named Loring a member. Made president, he served in this capacity until 1890 when he failed of reelection owing to a Democratic landslide. Elected again in 1892 he served a year and then resigned since the board contemplated purchasing land in which he had an interest. He was commissioner again from 1903 to 1906.
Whether or not on the board he labored incessantly for, and gave freely of his own means to, the cause, and before his death had the satisfaction of seeing Minneapolis equipped with a comprehensive system of parks, parkways, and playgrounds which form some of the principal attractions of the city. By his addresses, newspaper contributions, and ready advice he aroused dormant civic pride in many towns of the state. In Riverside, California, where he spent his winters from the early eighties until near the close of his life, he stimulated the same kind of betterments that he had in Minneapolis.
Charles Morgridge Loring was a national figure, known for his work in civic betterment. He was consulted by people from all over the country. It was through his efforts that Mount Rubidoux was made a scenic park and one of the first bird sanctuaries of the country, while the planting of thousands of trees about it was the direct result of his endeavors. While the whole Minneapolis park system was the outgrowth of his work and planning for the future, certain features peculiarly owed their origin to him. One of the last projects to receive his impress was the Victory Memorial Drive in the Grand Rounds which took form in accordance with his suggestions and to which he not only donated money to plant some six hundred trees dedicated to victims of the World War but left a sum to provide for maintenance of the memorial. In his honor Central Park was renamed Loring Park.
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Loring was active in the state horticultural society and in the forestry association, over each of which he was president for a time. He was also a president in 1899 and 1900 of American Park and Outdoor Art Association.
Loring was twice married: in 1855 to Emily Smith Crossman, who died in 1894, and on November 28, 1895, to Florence Barton.
